It’s a smile that even if you’re having a bad day, seeing him smiling makes you smile. Try though I might, I can’t resist it.

Today, Dale was a little down. Because of a new boundary we set in place and the fact I’ve got no money in light of just recently switching jobs, we’ve been pretty much spending every night with my parents, and, even I admit, it is quite exhausting. So, when dropping him home, I noted to him that he seemed off. Dale being off means he almost becomes cold with everyone. That can sometimes be put down to him being tired or processing (today he did a run, so I assumed it was that), and very rarely it could be something has upset him. All I know for definite, is that he’s not smiling, and it can take a fair bit of effort to get him smiling again.

This is Dale smiling. It’s glorious, happy, cute and infectious! Everything in his smile means he’s having fun. Whether it be him telling an awful pun joke, talking non-stop about trains or music or even him planning some crazy venture. I absolutely love seeing the Dale-Smile. And he knows it!

Today we were watching Cold Case.

It’s an American TV Crime show, based around detectives who pick up cases that have gone cold to solve them themselves. Today was batting very close to home. (I also thought this may have put Dale off… turns out it was absolutely nothing to do with it).

The show was centered around the deaf community. A young boy who was deaf was murdered in a deaf school. The detectives interrogated old girlfriends (one hearing and one also deaf), teachers, best friends (also deaf) and even his parents (also deaf). It was revealed that the boy became deaf suddenly when he attracted an illness. The boy used to play piano and was very good at it. He loved being part of the deaf community. He then met a girl who was hearing and who also loved piano. She had come to the school to teach while serving community service for a DUI. They had a brief relationship.

It was then revealed that the boy had considered a Cochlear Implant, but there was seemingly very heavy opposition to it from him best friend and parents. His best friend seemed to regard having an implant as betrayal. His parents not thinking too differently. The hearing girlfriend supporting him because of her knowing that he wanted to hear her voice and also hear music.

At the end of the program, it was revealed that the boy did get a cochlear implant, his dad supported it and his best friend did too, but after the boy had received his implant and was playing piano, the best friend became jealous (the best friend had also applied but was considered an unsuitable candidate) and hit the boy across the head with a Metronome, right where the cochlear was placed.

Throughout the program, there was the constant theme of this world – that world.

One of the detectives even asked about the separation, one of teachers saying that generally those who speak the same language, band together and form a community. The detective then saying that Sign was hardly a language as it was just hand movements, clearly showing the gap between the hearing and the deaf. Nevertheless, the detective tried to learn ASL (American Sign Language) to try and talk to witnesses/suspects. However, it wasn’t just the Hearing Character making the gap. The best friend himself was putting a huge gap between the Hearing and the Deaf. The Parents were also doing this by [originally] not being supportive of the cochlear implant, saying that it would mean that the person implanted would belong to neither Deaf or Hearing world; becoming a ‘freak’.

Now, this isn’t an old program, and Dale and I know full well the views of Cochleas by both the Hearing and the Deaf. Some people believe that, if God wanted someone to hear, he would have made them hear. Some others believe that what you never had, you wont miss, and some would rather be deaf then a computer hear for them. It’s a sad reality that such a beautiful gift can cause so much war between two persons.

If Dale had decided that he didn’t want the Cochlea, I would have been in full support of it. It’s his decision. Would it have been harder? Yes. Of course it would have. It would have probably helped with my signing a lot more, but communicating and the simple pleasures of life wouldn’t have been the same. Am I thankful that Dale did accept the Implant? Yes. Definitely. Because it makes him happy. It gives him that independency that he needs but also allows him to enjoy his favourite hobbies.